Lok Sabha Polls 2024 | Face-off: D M Kathir Anand vs A C Shanmugam

The two are contesting from Vellore.

Son of DMK general secretary Durai Murugan, Kathir Anand is one of the latest dynasts to enter the electoral fray in Tamil Nadu. A businessman with interests in varied sectors, Anand runs a group of educational institutions and is based out of Katpadi near Vellore.

Anand, who won the Vellore seat in 2019 by a slender margin, hit the news for wrong reasons in his debut elections after Rs 11.48 crore was recovered from a godown owned by the relative of a DMK functionary.

The elections to Vellore were rescinded due to large-scale play of money power and was held three months later. Anand is currently being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the money seizure during the 2019 elections.

The DMK MP faces anti-incumbency but is hoping for the consolidation of Muslim votes, which is huge in numbers, to win a second term in Lok Sabha.

A veteran politician who shrugged shoulders with the legendary M G Ramachandran, A C Shanmugam is trying his luck from the Vellore Lok Sabha constituency for the third straight time after having lost in 2014 and 2019.

Shanmugam, who won from the Vellore Lok Sabha constituency in 1984 when MGR was the head of AIADMK and had served as an MLA, is an educationist who owns medical, dental, and engineering colleges besides other businesses. Hailing from the dominant Mudaliar community, Shanmugam floated the New Justice Party in 2001 and has been swinging like a pendulum between the AIADMK and BJP.

He contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls on BJP’s Lotus symbol but contested on AIADMK’s Two Leaves symbol in 2019 polls and he is now back to contesting on Lotus. As he wields considerable influence in the area, Vellore is one of the constituencies that are seen as favourable for the BJP.

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